14 DAY TRIAL // British video game development company Codemasters has shut down its website after hackers managed to break in and steal customer data.
The intrusion occurred on June 3, but it took the company a week to determine the extent of the breach and damage caused.
The game developer advised customers via email on Friday that attackers were able to steal customer names and addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted passwords and order history from the Codemasters EStore.
No financial information was compromised because the company uses external payment processors and doesn't keep this type of data on their own servers.
In addition to the Codemasters EStore, the Codemasters CodeM database was also breached exposing member names, usernames, screen names, email addresses, dates of birth, encrypted passwords, newsletter preferences, biographies, details of their last site activity, IP addresses and Xbox Live Gamertags.
The hackers also obtained access to the DiRT 3 VIP code redemption page, as well as the Codemasters corporate site and sub-domains. The company has since shut down all public sites and redirects customers to its Facebook page.
The codemasters.com website will remain offline for the foreseeable future while the company rebuilds it from scratch. The new version is expected to be launched sometime later this year.
The company is advising customers to change their passwords on all Codemasters properties, as well as other online websites where they might have used them.
As with all data breach cases, affected individuals should be wary of emails and telephone scams trying to use the compromised information to obtain more sensitive details from them.
"Please note that Codemasters will never ask you for any payment data such as credit card numbers or bank account details, nor will Codemasters ask you for passwords or other personal identifying data. Be aware too of fraudulent emails that may outwardly appear to be from Codemasters with links inviting you to visit websites," the company stresses.